Home, home, Amber's coming home. Its Christmas time and Amber's coming home.

These lines had ran through James' head since the start of December and by the week of Amber's return James could be seen bobbing his head to a tune that he had made up for these lines so that they didn't get old (for him anyway).

On the actual day of Amber's return James could be seen practically bouncing with anticipation on the platform with an equally excited Sarah and an embarrassed Adam.

"You two are acting ridiculous," Adam pointed out.

"Aren't you excited that Ethan is coming home?" Sarah asked her husband.

"Yes, but you both need to get use to them being away. It's only been three months and a few weeks since they left and when they leave after the break they will be gone until summer," he pointed out.

Sarah and James stared at him as though what he was saying were blasphemous. "You're really bumming me out, Adam," James said.

"I'm just trying to be realistic," Adam sighed.

"Don't!" Sarah snapped.

And that was when they heard it-the sound that James had dreamed about since Amber had left back in September-the Hogwarts Express blaring its whistle, announcing the arrival of the students.

"It's here, it's here," Sarah screamed as she began bouncing up and down in excitement. The other parents on the platform were beginning to stare, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Sarah.

"What are you looking at?" She yelled at a group of adults who were staring. "Haven't you ever seen a woman excited to see her son? Aren't you excited to see your kids? Your horrible parents!"

"Sarah," Adam said in a soothing tone as he took hold of her shoulders to cease her bouncing. "Why don't you stop yelling at the people and see if you can't find Ethan when he comes off of the train?"

As the train came to a stop and children began to stream out of the doors James looked frantically for Amber.

"There she is!" James practically squealed when he saw Amber, pointing at her as she hurried over to him.

"Dad!" Amber squealed and she jumped into his arms. "I've missed you so much!"

James was so glad to have Amber back with him that he gave her a bone crushing hug.

"Dad," Amber's strained voice came from his arms, "I'm dying."

"You can handle it for a little while longer," James assured her, refusing to let her go anytime soon.

Adam, Sarah, and Ethan were having a similar reunion a little ways away.

"Alright," James said letting go of Amber, "You can breathe now."

"Thanks dad," Amber smiled up at him. She hadn't changed much since September, her hair was slightly longer and up in a messy ponytail, she had gotten a little taller.

"Let's go home," James suggested. After saying goodbye to Adam, Sarah, and Ethan, James got Amber's trunk and they headed out of the barrier and into the muggle world.

"So," Amber started a conversation as James kept an eye out for a safe place for them to apperate. "Are you still seeing Charlotte?"

Amber's tone was calculating and not having actually talked to her about it James wasn't sure how exactly she was taking him in a serious relationship. Therefore he kept his answer short. "Yes."

"Are they going with us to Gran Molly's?" She asked, still with the careful tone, he hated that, he wished she would be happy, or even angry, at least then he would know what he was dealing with.

"That's the idea."

"Great!" Amber finally showed an emotion about the whole thing and flashed her giant smile up at her dad. "We'll be able to have a killer snowball fight!"

James laughed, glad that she was being her happy, energetic self. "When you see Charlotte you should ask her about the time she spent Christmas with Rose," James reminisced. "That was the most epic snowball fight I've ever been a part of."

The Burrow at Christmas time was James' favorite places and when he, Charlotte, Amber, Isaac, and Sophie arrived on Christmas day it did not disappoint. The ground outside was covered in snow as they walked toward the lopsided home which had smoke billowing out of a couple of the chimneys on it's roof.

"What happened to the tradition of staying the whole week leading up to Christmas?" Charlotte asked.

"Well," James began. "Now that all of the grandkids are old and most have families of there own there are just too many of us to squeeze into the house. Plus, Gran and Gramps are really old."

When they came to the door James grabbed Charlotte's hand. "Are you ready for this?" He asked her.

Charlotte rolled her eyes. "James, I've meet your family before," she reminded him. "I spent a whole Christmas break here during our seventh year."

The kids looked mildly surprised to hear this but decided to say nothing.

"Yeah I know," James admitted, "but back then you were just Rosie's friend now you're going in as my…" James paused for a moment, not knowing what terminology to use. The words 'girlfriend' and 'boyfriend' seemed kind of childish to him but then again when had he ever worried about seeming childish? "…girlfriend," it sounded like a question.

Charlotte smiled and Amber got impatient. "Yes, dad, Charlotte's your girlfriend, now can we move it along, I want to see the rest of my family."

James turned to smirk at Amber, "Impatient are we?"

Amber responded by hopping up and down, "It's Christmas, I'm freezing, and I didn't want to say anything but I really have to pee!"

James would have loved to stand in front of the door longer and initiate some good natured torture but it was suddenly pulled open.

"What are you doing standing out here?" Arthur Weasley asked from the other side of the door. Amber saw her opportunity when James turned to see his grandpa and zipped around him and Arthur and headed for the bathroom.

"Merry Christmas Gramps," James greeted, ignoring Arthur's question as he let the group into the warm and cozy house. James could hear the hum of many voices drifting from further inside the house and knew that this Christmas would be just as over crowded as it always was; he loved Christmas. "This is my girlfriend, Charlotte," James introduced, putting an arm around Charlotte, who smiled at Arthur, "and her kids, Isaac and Sophie."

"Wonderful to meet you," Arthur said to the kids, "and it's great to see you again Charlotte."

"It's good to see you too Mr. Weasley," Charlotte smiled while James was silently fuming. He had hoped, in vain, that his family wouldn't remember that Christmas in seventh year that Charlotte had spent with Rose, but as James made more introductions it became apparent that everyone did remember-Molly even went so far as to comment on how 'nice it was that James was 'seeing Rosie's friend.' Never mind the fact that the Quidditch Cup was the first time Rose and Charlotte had spoken in years, Rose had been the first one to introduce Charlotte to the family so she would always be 'Rosie's friend' to them.

Most of the family seemed not to notice James scolding whenever they made any indication that they all already knew Charlotte and if they did notice they didn't comment on it. In fact, Teddy was they first to point out James' predicament; "Face it James, everyone has already met Charlotte."

"Can't you guys just pretend," James pleaded, "for me?"

Obviously no one would pretend so James sulked, which Charlotte thought was very hilarious. "James stop sulking about something so petty," she commanded while trying to hide how funny she thought it was from him (but James noticed and scowled at her).

"You really should stop it," Rose interjected because apparently she didn't think she had done enough damage to James' ego (just for that James scowled at her too). "If I remember correctly you did enough sulking about this same thing during the last Christmas Charlotte was here."

"I wouldn't be sulking at all if it wasn't for you," James mumbled gloomily.

"Look at it this way," Charlotte tried to comfort him. "Since everyone already knows me we don't have to go through small talk for them to discern if I'm good enough for their lil' Jamesie."

James had to admit that she was right but he did scowl at her for calling him "lil' Jamesie," just for good measure.

The rest of the day was pleasant for everyone, Amber was able to instigate a massive snowball fight involving most everyone, Molly out did herself by making sweaters for everyone, everyone treated Isaac, Sophie, and Charlotte as though they had always been there for every Christmas, and for some reason Sophie seemed unable to leave Romulus alone for one minute, maybe it was his red and green stripped hair or pointed elf ears that made Sophie cling to Rom but James had a feeling that Sophie had developed her first crush (much to Rom's annoyance at having a seven year old follow him around).

All seemed well and happy with the Weasley and Potter families (and their extensions), how was James suppose to know that there was something eating at one of those seemingly happy family members and that that something would be set off by an inconspicuous letter brought by and equally inconspicuous owl.

There was nothing about the bringing of the letter that would warrant the reaction it caused when the owl stopped in front of Amber while the family was unwrapping gifts, the letter tied to its foot. Amber looked around slightly confused when the owl stopped in front of her but seeing that no one else thought it strange she untied the letter from its foot and let it fly back out of the window. She quickly read through the letter and her expression went from surprise to a look that seemed like she was uncertain of what to feel. Finally she settled on an uncharacteristic angry look and crumbled the letter up into a ball and stood up.

"I'll be right back," she muttered to no one in particular and headed out of the room.

It was the anger and hasty exit that let James know that something was wrong; so, making up an excuse, he followed his daughter out of the room. It wasn't long until he found her, sitting alone in one of the upstairs rooms that use to belong to Ginny but was now used for storage and the occasional grandkid that wanted to stay the night. She was staring forlornly at the crumpled letter and as James watched her anger came back and she threw the letter across the room with a grunt of disgust.

"I guess I was right then," James said, making his presence know. "You are upset about something."

Amber looked up at him, surprised. "I'm not upset," she denied, looking away.

"You're a bad liar," James pointed out as he walked into the room and sat on his mum's old bed with her. "What's up kiddo?"

"It's-it's," she started and then sighed. "You wouldn't understand."

Despite himself James panicked, "It's not the girl thing is it?" he asked aghast, "because if it is I think that mum or Lily might be better suited to give you this talk." James was babbling out of discomfort.

"NO!" Amber silenced his babbling and groaned. "Now if I don't tell you you'll think the worst and send Gran up here for a very uncomfortable talk, won't you?"

"Yes. So tell me what's got you so angry and at a piece of paper, no less," James nodded toward the abused letter in the corner of the room.

"It's not the letter, dad," Amber rolled her eyes at him, "It's who wrote it."

James still had no idea what her problem was and there was a moment of silence as he waited for her to continue. When she didn't James was forced to pry even further. "Who wrote it?"

"Darrie," Amber said as though that explained everything.

"Who?"

"I told you that you wouldn't understand," Amber huffed and dropped her head into her hands.

"Amber is this Darrie person bothering you because if she is you need to tell me so that I can do something about it," James told her.

Amber lifted her head to look at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears. "It's not that I don't want her to write me-I mean…I just don't-I tried to tell her-but now I'm not so sure that I made the right decision. She wants to get to know me-but I don't want-but I do…. I'm so confused!" By the end of this mini rant Amber was openly crying and James was confused too.

"Okay Amber," James kneeled in front of her and put both hands on her shoulders to sit her upright, going into father mode upon seeing tears. "First off you need to calm down. Take deep breaths," he suggested in a calm yet stern voice.

Amber did as she was told and took several deep breaths until she was calm enough to talk right.

"Now," James said in the same comforting voice, "you need to tell me exactly who Darrie is."

"She's my birth mum, dad."

There was a moment of silence in which James stared at Amber in pure shock, not knowing what to make of this. "…I probably should have known that," he finally said.

"She first wrote to me during my second week at Hogwarts," Amber told him, beginning to open up. "She said that she had wanted to sooner but she didn't know where to send the letter; she had to wait until she knew I would be at Hogwarts." Amber took a deep breath as she began to tell him. "She said that she was sorry…that she had been scared and young and had acted on an impulse that she regrets everyday. She wanted to make amends. She wanted to get to know me. She wanted to be the mother that she should have been eleven years ago. She wanted my forgiveness…But daddy," Amber began to cry as she spoke. "Dad, she was asking too much! I don't want to forgive her! I don't want her regrets, I don't want her apologizes, and I don't want her!" Amber was sobbing again but this time she had flung her arms around James' neck.

"Amber," James tried to sooth her by rubbing circles into her back. "I wish you would have told me about this."

"What could y-you have done," Amber challenged, hiccuping midway through.

"Well, nothing," James admitted. "But I still would have liked to have known, but that's beside the point. I thought that you wanted to know your mum?" he questioned. Hadn't she begged him to tell her about her birth mother before she had left?

"That was before I knew that she didn't want me," Amber admitted, letting go of James and looking at him with watery hazel eyes. "Now I-I don't know what I want. Part of me wants to tell her that I don't care how sorry she is and that she should never talk to me again…but another part of me still wants to know about her-about why she sent me away. What should I do?" She asked, and her hazel eyes-which looked identical to James'-begged him for answers that he couldn't give her.

"I wish I could tell you, Amber, I really do. But it's up to you. That's your decision Amber."

Amber hung her head again, dejectedly. "Thanks a lot," she muttered sarcastically.

"But I can tell you," James said lifting her head back up gently, "that no matter what you choose you'll always have me and the rest of your family to back you up."

"I know dad."

"Good," James stood up and held out a hand to help her off of the bed too. "But you know," he mused, thinking out loud. "If she does really want to get to know you then I'm sure that she would be more than willing to go whatever pace you set. I mean it's not like you have to start calling her mum and go live with her, you can do whatever makes you feel comfortable."

Amber seemed to think about this for a moment and then smiled up at her dad.

"Thanks dad, that helps."

A/N: Alright, I know you all want to kill me for not updating in so long and I completely understand but I do have my excuses: writers block, computer crash, computer sent off to be fixed, Christmas (in that order). I know you don't really care about my excuses and that I have a tendency to tell more than anyone wants or needs to know but the story has been updated now so please forgive me and if it's not asking too much review.